Hello,
Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s former media mogul is set to be sentenced on Monday, following a months-long trial in which the 78-year old was convicted on national security offences.
Lai, a British citizen and founder of the now defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty last December of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, as well as one count of publishing seditious materials.
At the time of his verdict, Esther Toh, one of the three government-vetted national security judges who oversaw Lai’s trial, wrote: “There is no doubt in our mind that the first defendant never wavered in his intention to destabilise the governance of the CCP [Chinese Communist party], and despite the enactment of the national security law, he was intent on continuing, though in a less explicit way.”
Lai, who has been a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist party, was arrested in August 2020 following Beijing’s imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong in response to the city’s pro-democracy protests at the time.
Lai’s arrest and conviction had been widely monitored and criticised by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
In December, US president Donald Trump urged Chinese president Xi Jinping to “consider” releasing Lai, saying: “I feel so badly… He’s an older man and he’s not well. So I did put that request out. We’ll see what happens, okay?”. Meanwhile, upon returning from his trip to China last month, UK prime minister Keir Starmer, told UK parliament: “I raised the case of Jimmy Lai and called for his release.”
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates from Lai’s sentencing.
